The Quran - History of Text

Arif Humayun
The Review of Religions, February 1994

Unlike the Old and the New Testaments, the Quran has been preserved
in its entirety. The Quranic revelations were memorised and recorded immediately
and simultaneously upon their revelation. The Quran was revealed by God
to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) over a period of about
23 years. The revelations were conveyed to the Prophet in small segment
by the angel Gabriel who made the Prophet recite the revealed verses in
his presence.

From the very outset, the Prophet employed two independent but mutually
complementary methods for preserving the revelations. The two methods
used for this purpose were memorisation and inscription. Besides ensuring
independently the transmission of the revelation, the two methods also
served as internal checks, thus ensuring its accurate preservation.

Islamic traditions record that the Prophet employed four principal teachers
whom he personally instructed in memorising the revelations. By this method,
even the correct pronunciation of the message was preserved. These teaches
would then help others in their memorisation of the revealed verses. Moreover,
as the revelations were received, they were also recited in the five daily
prayers. Thus, the main mode of preservation and transmission of the Quranic
revelations was through memorisation. Interestingly, the Quran was literally
preserved by being written on the hearts of people, as prophesied in the
Bible:

But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of
Israel after those days says the Lord: "I will put my law within
them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people." (1)

Thus, the memorisation process proved to be the single, most effective method
for preserving Quranic revelation. Moreover, the style in which the Quran
was revealed is also in total conformity with Isaiah's prophecy about the
new law being revealed as:

For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, Line
upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little. Nay, but by
men of strange lips and with an alien tongue, the Lord will speak to His
people to whom He has said, (2)

Alternately, the revelation was also recorded in written form, soon after
its receipt. Islamic tradition records that fifteen scribes were employed
by the Prophet for preserving the revelations in writing from the Prophet's
dictation. This method of preservation was to serve as a backup.

Once a year during the month of Ramadan (the Muslim month of fasting),
the angel Gabriel would recite the entire revelation, revealed up to that
time with the Prophet. During the last Ramadan, after the revelations
had been completed, the angel recited the entire Quranic revelation to
the Prophet twice.(3) This regular annual recitation
was also meant to arrange the revelations in their present order.

At the time of the Prophet's death, the number of people who had memorised
the entire Quran exceeded one hundred thousand. (4)
The process of new converts accepting Islam continued as did the process
of memorising the entire Quran. The Quran propagated through the process
of memorisation ensured its survival in its pristine purity. During the
Caliphate of Abu Bakr (the first Caliph after the Prophet's death), over
500 people who knew the entire Quran by heart, were killed in a battle.
This tragic event served as the catalyst to accelerate the process of
preserving the written Quranic revelation as an alternative method of
safeguarding God's message. Thereupon, the Caliph Abu Bakr appointed a
commission and charged it with the task of compiling the Quranic revelations
into one volume. The commission assembled the scribes employed by the
Prophet for recording the revelations and compiled the recorded texts
into one volume. The accuracy of the text of this volume was checked by
the Prophet's disciples who had committed the entire Quran to their memory
as well as from the written scripts. This one volume compilation was completed
within two years of the Prophet's death.

The third Caliph, Uthman, had the same commission prepare seven additional
copies of the Quran. After being thoroughly checked for accuracy, these
copies were distributed throughout the Muslim world. Some of these copies
still survive. One such copy is preserved in a Turkish Museum, which has
been used by leading authorities to compare the current Quranic text.
After additional copies of the Quran were compiled and distributed throughout
the Muslim world, the third Caliph Uthman considered it essential that
the original recording be destroyed, due to the following reasons:

Because of their uniqueness, they might be revered by people to the
point of worship, thus potentially defeating the essence of Islam.

They might be desecrated and also serve as a tool for blackmail if
they fell into enemy hands.

Contrasting the compilation of the Old and New Testaments with that
of the Quran, Divine designs become more evident. Muslims can claim that
the Quran around the world is uniform, even in its minutest detail. It
is exactly the same as was originally revealed to the Holy Prophet and
which was assembled in one volume by the first Caliph, Abu Bakr. The Encyclopaedia
Britannica, among other independent sources, testifies to this
fact (5) and concedes this point to the Muslims. The
authenticity of the Quran is beyond the slightest shadow of doubt. It
had to be so because God Himself has promised to safeguard the integrity
of His Word. (6)

Surely, We Ourselves have sent down this Exhortation, and We
will, most surely, safeguard it.

The Quran has the additional unique distinction among all other scriptures
of being an entirely verbal revelation. That, in itself, is a guarantee
that it would not be perverted or twisted. All non-Muslim scholars who have
researched into the integrity of the text of the Holy Quran agree that it
is an exact and accurate version of the verbal revelation that Muhammad,
the Prophet of Islam (sa), claimed that God had vouchsafed to him. This
Divine guarantee of safeguarding the Quran is not confined to preserving
the integrity of the text alone. It extends to all factors that bear upon
the preservation of the Quran as the perfect source of Divine guidance for
the whole of mankind, for all times. For instance, it is guaranteed that
the language in which it was revealed, namely Arabic, would always continue
to be a living language in current use, so that no difficulty might be met
with in determining and comprehending the meaning of the Quran. Arabic is
today spoken and written over a much greater area of the earth and by many
hundred times the number of people than was the case when Quran was revealed.
Besides, the Holy Prophet predicted that at the beginning of every century,
God Almighty would raise someone, from among his followers, who would set
forth from the Quran the guidance that may be needed by mankind from time
to time. In the case of no other scriptures has the integrity of its text,
its language and its guidance been maintained.

That Divine Challenge put forth almost 1400 years ago is still valid
today. The very fact that no other versions of the Quran exists is overwhelming
evidence of its Divine protection. M. Bucaille in his book The Bible,
The Quran and Science testifies to the above facts and some excerpts
from his book follow:

If we now examine the teachings of Muslim exegetes, we shall
see that they present the Qur'an in quite a different manner. About fourteen
centuries ago at a meditation retreat near Mecca, Muhammad received the
first message through the Archangel Gabriel. After a long period of silence,
the first message was followed by successive revelations spanning a period
of some twenty years. They were not only transcribed while the Prophet
was still alive, but also recited by heart by his early followers and
later by the many believers who had gathered around him. After his death
(i~ 632 A.D.), the various elements were brought together in a book, henceforth
known as The Qur'an. It contains the Word of God to the exclusion of any
human addition. The manuscripts we possess from the first century of Islam
authenticate today's text. (7)

Islam has its equivalent of the Gospels in the Ahadiths. These are
the collected sayings of Muhammad and the story of his deeds. The Gospels
are nothing other than this for Jesus. The first collections of Ahadiths
were written decades after the death of Muhammad, just as the Gospels
were written decades after Jesus. In both cases they bear human witness
to events in the past.(8)

In conclusion then, the Pentateuch (Torah), as we know it today, is not
exactly the same as it was revealed to Moses. The later books of Old Testament
have also undergone many revisions and modifications for many words and
phrases found in the older versions have been changed in subsequent revisions.
It may be coincidental that many of the changed words, or sections are those
which the Muslims have used in support of their view point. In spite of
the inconsistencies among the various versions, the Old Testament still
foretells the promulgation of a new law from God to guide future generations.

The absolute accuracy of the Bible can be best described by quoting
from the preface of the Revised Standard Version, which describes it as
the most probable reconstruction of events based on the best judgement
of competent scholars.(10)

The Quran, on the other hand, stands alone in its absolute authenticity.
Its accuracy is beyond the slightest shadow of a doubt. This fact has
been corroborated by many independent researchers and can also be verified
today through comparison with on of the first written copies.